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A Case Study: How to Go From Good, to Bad, to Worse.

(Or as one student once told me: “The main character in this novel is going from worse to worser”)

Dr. Carson is magnificently transforming himself from a model of Black perseverance and academic excellence, into a 2nd rate right-wing minstrel side show; destined for a very short run. In the end, his newly discovered conservative friends are simply going to walk away, and search for the next contradictory “model-minority” performer. A racial pretender who can disingenuously confirm the right-wings love and concern for the darker American others. The less intellectually gifted among them have even deluded themselves into thinking that people like Dr. Carson or Mia Long represent the true face and voice of Black America; if only they (Black America) were “liberated” from those terrible White liberals. This is the working definition of: “Going from good, to bad, to worse”.

Full disclosure here: for many years as an educator I promoted Dr. Carson’s Book, Gifted Hands as a powerful inspirational story for young people (I have purchased thousands of copies). But there is something very dangerous about fame and adulation that seems to push our sense of importance to destructive lengths. It does not help when people like me (Further disclosure: I once gave Dr. Carson an award and brought him in as a speaker) convey our sincere praise and appreciation for your work. It is at that moment that we truly need a “centering” mechanism in our head and heart that can whisper to us that: “You ain’t all that”. Without moral breaks we seem to speed toward the title of one of my favorite films: “A Bridge too far”. There is the very terrible danger of getting ahead of our calling; of getting ahead of God’s plan for us; and the risk of getting behind stupidity. Success can breed delusions of grandeur. We are at that moment cast in the roll of Jesus being shown all of the kingdoms of this earth. “All of these things can be yours”; says satan. But this terrible decision to choose the “glory and praise” of a materially full but spiritually empty world condemns us to a loss of our true calling; simply because it does not offer enough to satisfy our ever-growing with hunger ego. The final descent is being drawn into a comic self-delusionary state; where something is true simply because, we think it so. We in esscence live in the unreality we have created in our imaginations; encouraged of course by the false adulation of an insincere fan base; they wait earnestly for our next joke; and you of course provide the punch-line not realizing the joke is about, and on you.

The main criteria for any Black role in the Republican party is to simply be “anti-Obama”; not be for something that could truly change the plight of Black Americans. The limited casting rules and roles should lead any intelligent person to say: “wait, something is wrong here; I am more than the anti-Obama chocolate flavor of the month; I can think!” Dr. Carson’s description of : “Liberals as the most racist”; not only seeks to turn history on its head (the good guys become the bad guys; and the bad guys show up as good). It further mocks the contributions and sacrifices of an entire class of people who set out to make sure that our Nation could realize it’s true calling to be fair and just to all of its citizens. Many of those “liberals” left the safety of White Privilege” and lost their lively hoods and in many cases their lives in our struggle for freedom and equality. Who in the world is Dr. Carson speaking about: William Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionist? The thousands of union soldiers who lay buried all over the south far away from their place of birth? Viola Liuzzo, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and other liberals killed in the civil rights struggle? The liberal White freedom bus riders or that Democratic Liberal president Lyndon B. Johnson, who move to codify and put into law much of the goals of the civil rights movement. Perhaps more time with brain psychology, as opposed to brain physiology would inform Dr. Carson that Black Americans are not stupid. They know what they see when they see it. And what they see is a very racist national effort by his conservative collogues to hinder and deny them the right to vote. That is racism.

For sure all of the efforts of “liberals” have not always been totally helpful; and the Democrats have a long way to go in building up enough courage to again speak openly of building a “Great society” where all can enjoy the possibility of realizing their full human potential. But I would take a misguided White liberal any day (there is at least the hope of redemption), over a right-wing conservative who is philosophical dedicated to the denial of my human and civil rights.

Dr. Carson come back; be the wonderful model you were destined to be; inspire our young people to greatness; reject the false call of the glitz and glitter of this world. An ego satisfying illusion that only seeks to pull you away from your (good/best) self.